Biography

Subodh (Suman) Gupta

Biography from the Archives of askART

Subodh Gupta was born in Khagaul, Patna. He studied at the College of Art, Patna in 1983 - 1988, before moving to New Delhi where he currently lives and works. Trained as a painter, he went on to experiment with a variety of media. His work encompasses sculpture, installation, painting, photography, performance and video.

Subodh Gupta is best known for incorporating everyday objects that are ubiquitous throughout India, such as the steel tiffin boxes used by millions to carry their lunch as well as thali pans, bicycles, and milk pails. From such ordinary items the artist produces sculptures that reflect on the economic transformation of his homeland and which relate to Gupta's own life and memories.

Gupta transforms the icons of Indian everyday life into artworks that are readable globally. He is among a generation of young Indian artists whose commentary tells of a country on the move, fueled by boiling economic growth and a more materialistic mindset. Gupta's strategy of appropriating everyday objects and turning them into artworks that dissolve their former meaning and function brings him close to artists like Duchamp; The Guardian called him 'the Damien Hirst of Delhi.'

One of his recent major works, consisting of Indian cooking utensils, is Line of Control (2008), a colossal mushroom cloud constructed entirely of pots and pans. The work was shown in the Tate Triennial at Tate Britain in 2009.

Painting is also an important part of Subodh Gupta's art practice. His series Still Steal Steel consists of photorealistic paintings of kitchen utensils falling and moving in space. In his early paintings, Gupta used another element of Indian every day life, cow dung. This is used in India for building houses and as fuel for cooking fires. Moreover, it is a cleaning agent. The idea that cow dung is inherently clean is ingrained in rural India. There, it is a purifying element, both ritual and symbolic. In his video Pure (2000, 9 min.), Gupta takes the detergent concept literally and has filmed himself taking a shower, to free himself of the thick layer of dung that covers his body.

In works that Subodh Gupta presented at Hauser & Wirth in October 2009, the artist moved away from composite sculptures toward objects that possess an auratic quality. Ready-made commodities experience transformations in scale and material. Relations to European art history were now to be found. Among the new works is a three-dimensional reworking in bronze of Duchamp's mustachioed Mona Lisa L.H.O.O.Q. (1919).

His oil on canvas painting Saat Samundar Paar went under the hammer for Rs 3.4 crores in the Saffronart autumn online auction. In 2008, he along with several other artists raised 3.93 crores for Bihar flood victims.

In 2010 Subodh Gupta designs the stage set for the ballet CREATION 2010 by Angelin Preljocaj, the French choreographer. The ballet is produced by the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow, and the Ballet Preljocaj.

Gupta has had solo exhibitions with some of the most prestigious galleries in the world, including Hauser & Wirth, The Saatchi Gallery and Jack Shainman Gallery. His work has been included in important international biennales and museum shows around the world. Along the way, he has received numerous grants and awards, including the UNESCO-ASHBERG Bursaries for Artists, the Bose Pacia Emerging Artist Award, in New York, a visiting professorship at L'Ecole des Beaux-arts, in Paris, and the Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government in 2013. In 2005 he participated in the Venice Biennale and was shortlisted for the Artes Mundi International Visual Arts Prize.
Born in Khagaul, in Bihar, India, Gupta completed his BFA in painting at College of Arts and Crafts, Patna, in India. Today he lives and works in New Delhi with his wife, fellow internationally-recognized conceptual artist, Bharti Kher.

Christie's, Mumbai

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